Crazy
by superheroine
Summary: Ryou was not Bakura, no matter what the voices said. AU-ish; Ryou-centric.
1. Crazy

**Crazy** by _LittleMissHippie_

Disclaimer: I don't own _Yu-Gi-Oh!_

_A/N: _This is my first time writing a Yu-Gi-Oh! story so… just keep that in mind.

* * *

This could not be Ryou Bakura.

Ryou was _Ryou_—he was the type of guy everyone wanted to be around. He was kind; he was soft. He would not do this. He _was not_ doing this.

"Ryou," Téa said quietly, as if she was afraid. (Because Ryou was _scaring _her and Ryou was not supposed to be _scary_.) "You have to stop."

"But Téa," the white haired boy responded slowly. "I don't know what you mean."

"Put the knife down, man," Tristan commanded. "Just put it down."

"Slowly," Joey added.

"I don't know if I can do that, Tristan," Ryou said, his attention focused on his brown haired friend. "I'm not sure I can trust you… _any _of you."

"Of course you can trust us, Ryou!" Yugi said while sounding absolutely shocked. "How could you think that? We're your _friends._"

Ryou glanced at Yugi, who was tied to a chair in front of him. Ryou's knife was dangerously close to Yugi's neck.

Then he laughed.

"My _friends?_" he spat, sounding very unlike the Ryou Bakura they knew and loved. "Friends don't accuse their friends of being _crazy_. Friends don't trick their _friends _into going to a psychiatrist because they think they need _mental help. _Does that sound very _friendly _to you?" His voice was slowly getting angrier—not a loud anger, but a quiet one. A scary anger. "Well, Yugi_? _Does it?"

"It's because we _care, _Ryou—!"

He laughed again. Téa looked even more frightened. Tristan stiffened. Joey glared at the distance separating him from the crazy boy in front of him, wishing he was close enough to stop him before he had a chance to hurt Yugi.

"You _care?_ That's really funny, Yugi. I really didn't get that impression but if you say so..." His words trailed off as the knife edged closer and closer to the shorter boy's neck.

"Ryou, _stop it!_"

"You don't want to do this…"

"Think about what you're doing, man!"

Ryou's laughter grew louder as his demeanor shifted before the eyes of his friends. His features were sharper now. He looked different. He looked _evil._

_This is not Ryou Bakura. This cannot be Ryou Bakura._

His knife finally made contact with Yugi's skin.

Téa screamed.

* * *

Ryou was afraid.

He didn't want to be like Bakura. (He told himself over and over again, "I am _not _Bakura, we are _not the same—_") Bakura was evil. Bakura was bad. Bakura was a thief. Bakura was everything Ryou was not and he wanted it to _stay_ that way. Because if Ryou was Bakura—and the thought alone was enough to scare him—who would be _Ryou_? He could never really find the answer to this particular question—

—and that was enough to scare him.

* * *

He woke up—just like any other night—screaming.

"Did you have the _nightmare _again, Bakura?" the voices murmured. "Did you _kill_?"

"Shut up!" he yelled, his eyes closed and his hands covering his ears. "Just _shut up!_"

"Are you _scared, _Bakura?" the voices continued.

"Shut up!" he continued to shout. "I am _not _Bakura! I will _never _be like him!"

"You're just like him," the voices murmured inside his mind. "Just. Like. Him."

Ryou just wanted to wake up. He would give _anything _to just wake up—to realize this was all just a dream, and he was just regular Ryou. He didn't want to be—

"Crazy. You're _crazy!_" The voices sounded like they were laughing at him now. "But he was too. You're _just like him!_"

"I'm not crazy," Ryou said to himself. He was about to start crying, but he _was not crazy. _

"The nightmare is _right, _Bakura," the voices said. "You'll become just like him. You already are. You will _kill, _just like him_. _And you'll think it's all _funny, _just like he did."

"You're wrong!" Ryou yelled. "You're _wrong._"

The voices just laughed in response.

* * *

"Are you family?"

A group of teenagers stood in front of a nurse in the Domino City Hospital. "Well, actually—" the shortest one began before being cut off by the girl standing next to him.

"Yeah. We're his cousins," Téa replied. "Could you please show us to his room?"

The nurse looked doubtfully at Téa. "No, I'm afraid I can't do that. But I can show you to a doctor, and they could possibly help—"

A man dressed in a white coat inserted himself into their circle. "I'm sorry, but did you say you were cousins of Ryou Bakura?"

Tristan nodded. "Could you help us get to his room?"

"Of course," the doctor responded. "Follow me; I'll explain what happened on our way over. By the way, I'm Doctor Haku."

"Thank you," Yugi said and the doctor nodded in response.

"We're lucky we found him," Doctor Haku started. "If a neighbor hadn't called 911… well, we don't know what would've happened."

"What?" Joey asked, looking confused. "Why'd they call 911?"

The doctor glanced down at his clipboard. "They heard yelling. They didn't know why Mr. Ryou Bakura would be yelling at three o'clock in the morning, so they called 911."

"That doesn't sound like Ryou," Tristan said. "_I've _never heard him yell at three o'clock in the morning."

"Do you know why he was yelling?" Yugi asked the doctor.

"No," Doctor Haku replied. "He was passed out from blood loss—and probably pain—when our emergency vehicles arrived on the scene."

"_Blood loss?" _Téa shrieked.

"Yes," the doctor answered. "He was found with a severe wound on his neck. Most likely inflicted with the knife we found in his hand."

"In his hand…?" Yugi asked. "Does that mean…?"

"But Ryou wouldn't have…" Tristan said.

"He didn't," Téa said firmly. "I don't believe it."

Joey looked shocked—but grim. He stayed silent.

"We're assuming he was trying to kill himself," Doctor Haku continued. "And he would've succeeded, if we hadn't gotten there in time. Or if the cut had been any deeper. Or—"

"We get it," Joey interrupted. "We're lucky he's alive."

"I can't believe…" Téa muttered to herself. "But Ryou wasn't suicidal."

"We can ask Mr. Ryou Bakura all about it at a later time. For now, would you like to visit his room?"

Tristan nodded. They had arrived outside of Room 217, the room Ryou was currently residing in. Doctor Haku silently pushed open the door. "I'll wait outside."

* * *

"Oh, Ryou," Téa murmured.

"He really tried to do it," Yugi said, disbelief filling his voice. "He really tried to…"

"…kill himself," Joey finished. "Wow."

"Jeez," Tristan said. "I never even saw this coming."

"None of us did, Tristan." Yugi was staring at the long mark on Ryou's neck, as if Ryou had tried to _behead_ himself. "None of us did."

* * *

A week later, the same group of teenagers was back visiting their friend.

This time—for the first time—Ryou was awake.

"Ryou!" Téa said when she saw him. She smiled. "It's so great, seeing you awake again."

"Hey, man," Tristan said rather awkwardly. He stood near the wall, away from Ryou's hospital bed.

"I have your schoolwork," Yugi said, carrying a backpack full of copied notes and textbooks. "You haven't missed much, actually."

Joey stared at Ryou carefully as if looking for something. "I don't get it," he said flatly.

Ryou directed his attention toward his blond friend. "Pardon?"

"Why did you try to _kill _yourself?" he asked.

"Oh my god, Joey! You can't just—" Téa interrupted, shocked at her friend's bluntness.

"I… don't know," Ryou answered. His friends looked at him, their faces full of shock—no one expected him to _answer_—and confusion. "I can't remember anything," he clarified. "Not after—" _The nightmare_, he almost said. Instead, he continued, "Not after I fell asleep that night."

"Isn't that kind of weird though?" Joey asked. "Shouldn't you remember?"

"I think so," Ryou answered. "But I don't."

"Well then," Joey said. "Imagine that." The topic was dimissed.

Ryou listened to his friends' converse around him until visiting hours were over.

* * *

"You're such a liar," the voices murmured. "You remember exactly what happened. You were _scared_. You couldn't accept the truth. So, you took the easy way out. You tried to _kill yourself." _

For once, Ryou didn't argue. He let the voices talk—what was the point in arguing anyway? It wasn't like they would _leave. _

"And you know what?" the voices continued to murmur.

Ryou decided it would be best to just accepted his fate—

"_Bakura _did the exact same thing."

—he was just like Bakura.

* * *

**I don't even know where that came from. (I haven't even watched Yu-Gi-Oh! in forever.)**

**But thanks for reading—please review!**

**~LMH**


	2. Insane

**Insane **by _LittleMissHippie_

Disclaimer: I don't own _Yu-Gi-Oh!_

_A/N: _This is a direct continuation of Crazy—hence, it is being posted as a second chapter.

* * *

Summary: Ryou was not Bakura, no matter what the voices said. But he was crazy. (slightly AU.)

* * *

Ryou was different.

For the longest time, Yugi couldn't put his finger on what _exactly _was so different about the white haired boy—but the difference was there. It was a subtle difference, too. You wouldn't even be able to locate it… unless you were paying _very _close attention. But eventually, after weeks of observation, Yugi realized what had changed.

He just had no idea why.

* * *

"Ryou," he said one afternoon, when everyone else had gone to get some pizza. He paused as he thought about how he should phrase his question. Finally, he asked, "What's wrong?"

Ryou smiled. Yugi forced himself not to look away.

"There's something different about you," he continued. "It's almost as if…" His voice trailed off. Ryou just kept smiling.

Yugi finally glanced away. Ryou's smile was rather unnerving, and Yugi was getting creeped out. He wondered when his friends would return.

"I don't know what you mean," said Ryou. _There it is, _Yugi thought. _The entire reason we're having this conversation._

"What's wrong, Ryou?" the shorter boy asked, his voice filled with concern. Ryou almost laughed.

"I don't know what you mean," he repeated. His smile widened.

Yugi tried to gain some courage by closing his eyes and pretending he was somewhere else. "I don't know why you're acting this way," he said eventually. "This… this isn't you."

Ryou's smile faltered. The voices started whispering. _What if he knows? He _can't _know… That would just ruin everything… _"But this is me, Yugi. Who else could I be?" Ryou moved a hand to cover his pocket, where he kept his knife.

Yugi let out a nervous laugh. "I don't know, it's just a crazy—," Ryou froze at this word, his eyes narrowing almost unnoticeably, "—thought. It's just… you've been acting kind of weird since…" Yugi paused, his eyes opening and locking with Ryou's. "…you were in the hospital."

Ryou forced himself to continue smiling, his mind carefully calculating his response. Finally, he sighed and made himself look away. "You're right," he began, sounding the part of a friend about to confide in another. "Something's been… bothering me."

Yugi allowed himself a brief smile at his success. _Finally, _he thought. _We're getting somewhere. _"What is it, Ryou?" he urged the other boy.

The white-haired boy paused for a moment. "It's just… I still can't remember what happened that night," he said softly, his voice almost a perfect replica of Ryou's previous voice. Almost.

Yugi nodded, encouraging the boy to continue. _But something's still not right, _he thought. _It's almost as if…_

"I'm scared, Yugi," said Ryou, his voice now barely a murmur. "What could have happened? I don't remember how I ended up in the hospital, or how I got the cut, or anything. And that scares me." Ryou allowed himself to steal a look at Yugi, to see if he was buying his act. Yugi's face looked contemplative. Then something lit up in his features, as if realization had struck.

And now, Yugi was looking at him with suspicion.

_He's hiding something, _thought Yugi with certainty.

Ryou let himself look directly at Yugi. Anger flashed across his features, but disappeared as quickly as it arrived by the time the doorbell rang.

"Yo, Yugi! Open up!" yelled Joey through the door.

"Yeah, man! We've got the pizza!" added Tristan.

Yugi stood up and practically sprinted towards the door—and away from Ryou. He paused when he reached the doorway.

"I'll be right back, Ryou," said Yugi as he headed out the doorway. He glanced back at Ryou, who was smiling creepily at him again. He shook his head, as if shaking the image from his mind, and then headed back downstairs. _There's definitely something wrong with Ryou, _he thought. _He's acting sort of… crazy._

* * *

"He knows," the voices murmured to Ryou. "He's onto you."

Ryou sat in his darkened bedroom, his back to the wall. He squeezed his eyes shut, hoping the voices would just _go away and never come back—_

"You need to do something about him, Bakura," continued the voices. "He's going to tell everyone…"

The boy frantically shook his head. "You're lying," he rasped, the words barely leaving his mouth. "Yugi would never—"

"Bakura," the voices spoke. And Ryou—_just like Bakura, _the voices would've said—was silent. "He's going to betray you… he's going to tell everyone you're _crazy…_"

"He can't," whispered Ryou.

"He will," answered the voices. "You need to _stop him._"

The meaning was obvious to Ryou: he needed to get rid of Yugi. But Yugi was his _friend_—wasn't he? And you weren't supposed to _kill _your friends…

"Do it, Bakura," the voices urged. "He's not your friend. Just _kill_—"

"Yugi is going to tell people I'm crazy," Ryou murmured mindlessly, as if in a trance. "I need to get rid of Yugi… _get rid of Yugi…_"

What he needed to do was suddenly so simple—it was a wonder as to why he hadn't thought of it before. He would make _Yugi _seem like the crazy one. And then he'd beat him to the punch—he'd tell everyone about his obvious insanity. "No one will suspect me," said Ryou clearly with certainty.

_After all,_ he mused with a smile, _what are the chances of two people in the same group of friends being crazy?_

* * *

Yugi couldn't sleep.

First of all, something felt _off_—almost as if he was being watched in his own room. He resisted the urge to survey his room again. _No one is in here, _he thought to himself. _It's all in your head. _

The other thing that was bugging him was Ryou. Obviouslysomething was wrong—and Ryou wasn't going to truly confide in him anytime soon. _But what could he be hiding?_ The entire situation was puzzling. _Maybe it has something to do with that night… Maybe—_

A loud creak resounded throughout the room.

Yugi sat up and started looking around. "What—?"

"_Yugi," _a voice murmured softly. The short boy closed his mouth, his eyes widening in shock. "Can't sleep?" The voice laughed cruelly, as if he—_was the voice a he?_—knew something Yugi didn't.

"Yes," answered Yugi slowly. He slowly crept out of bed, trying to decide where the voice was coming from.

"Are you _worried?_" the voice asked, still cruel. Still laughing.

Yugi paused. "Yes," he repeated. And then, "My friend, Ryou…"

"_Forget about Ryou,"_ the voice commanded sharply. "He's not the one you should worry about." The voice wasn't laughing anymore. The silence in the room was deafening.

Yugi stared at his closet door. _That's the only place anyone could be hiding, _he thought. _If I just open the door…_

"But you already know that, don't you?" The voice was murmuring again. It was almost as if the voice was mocking him. "You want to tell everyone that Ryou's the crazy one—but you already know it's _you." _

Yugi reached forward, yanking open the closet door. He looked inside and—

The voice was laughing again, and Yugi was just standing there—_Is he right? Am I… crazy?_

—_no one was there._

* * *

"Yugi!"

The young boy shifted in his sleeping place on the floor.

Numerous voices spoke at once.

"Yugi, your Grandpa let us in—" Téa.

"Dude, why are you on the _floor?_" Joey.

"Are you okay, man?" Tristan.

"Don't you remember inviting us over, _Yugi?_" Ryou? That mocking tone… _so familiar…_

Yugi sat up. He rubbed his eyes and looked around. "Hey guys," he murmured sleepily. "Why are you…?" He looked confused, and kind of scared.

"Yugi, what's wrong?" asked Téa, the worry evident in her voice. "Is this why you called us? Tell us why you look so… _afraid._"

"I don't…" _I don't remember, _he thought to himself. _Why are you guys here?_ He looked at each of his friends' faces, his fear never quite ebbing away. _Is this how Ryou felt, when he woke up in the hospital? _

"Tell us what's bothering you, _Yugi,_" said Ryou softly. And yet—there was something _so familiar _about his voice… _Ryou is _nice. _So why is his presence—his _voice_—scaring me?_

Yugi tried not to continue thinking about the effect Ryou's voice had on him. Maybe if he told his friends what had happened last night… "I couldn't sleep last night," he began. "And then I heard… this voice." He closed his eyes, and shuddered at the memory. "And it just _wouldn't go away…_"

His friends would know what to do. They would help him—

He opened his eyes, and took in the fear on his friends' faces—all but one of their faces, that is. Yugi focused on Ryou's face, an eerie smile shining through his eyes. Before the words even left Ryou's mouth, Yugi knew everything was about to go horribly _wrong. _

"That sounds a little _crazy, _Yugi."

* * *

They watched as Yugi was taken away in a nice jacket—safe and white and straight, to keep him from hurting himself or those around him. He repeated the same phrase,—_over and over and over, _as if that would make it true—"_I'm not crazy_."

"I never would've guessed…" Téa murmured sadly. Her voice cracked as she fought back Téars.

"He always seemed so… sane," muttered Joey.

Tristan shook his head. "I don't know how you saw it, man."

Ryou smiled—it was sad, it was twisted,and it was scary; just like him.

_Convincing them of Yugi's insanity was the only way, _he thought. _I didn't want to kill him. He'll be safe in the asylum… _But he already knew the significance of his actions.

He could deny it—but denying it was another thing _Bakura _would do, and even after all this time, Ryou didn't want to be like Bakura. (Sometimes, he still just wanted to _wake up_—to realize that this was all just a dream. But it wasn't. He was trapped with these voices—)

"Congratulations, Bakura," the voices murmured. "You've reached a new level of _insanity."_

—but he wasn't crazy. He was _insane. _

**

* * *

**

Once again, no idea where this came from.

**Maybe I'm secretly messed up? Should I seek help immediately?**

**I hope—if you've read this far—that you enjoyed this continuation. Review, please?**

**~LMH**


End file.
